E3 2013

So it's the big day! PS4 at only US$399 haha! Way to stick it to MS! :p Well, still remains to be seen how the next gen of games will fare. Not too many original titles without a number behind.. ok, there's Destiny, which looks like a Halo/MMO mashup. There's The "Order 1886", which looks like some demon hunting steampunk thing. Too bad though that Bayonetta 2 is for the Wii U only... for now i hopes!

Persons who designed the XBONE and PS4 must have come from the same design school!

In other news, iOS 7 looks interesting... seeing how most of the wanted features are available on jailbroken phones haha!

Snake?!?!?!

Haha, so Kiefer Sutherland will be playing the VA of Snake in MGSV?... Ummm... seems a bit hard to believe! Haha, but watch the video here, cool, but some scenes seem so 'forced' haha. I like the part where Avi Arad say's "I used to have a friend to played Snake...." ;)

Arcadia VF-1J 30th Anniversary

So Arcadia's first VF is the 1J, guess they're playing it safe! Kinda garish looking.... but prob best to keep it in plane mode! At least Arcadia has taken over Yamato's reins in making 'new' macross toys... hopefully!

Toys I Collect - Starcom

Decided to put this as the next toy line as it's something i've re-collected most recently (though most of it's in the store now!). The starcom range by Coleco was an amazing range of toys which looked good, and had two gimmicky but awesome features; the Power-Deploy feature (which would be used in another series of toys called 'Xpanders'... yes. a rather unfortunate name) and Magna lock. Each vehicle had a button which you pressed to deploy a hidden weapon or feature, the buzzing sound from the little spring motor was most satisfying. The playsets and vehicles were complemented by little astronaut/space guys who had little magnets in their boots.... oooo fun time on the fridge!

There was a TV series too, which was kinda weak, and didn't hold my attention too long. The first series had great designs, and the transformations were innovative. Play value was high too, as each vehicle could interect with each other in some ways; most vehicles folded up and could be carried by the larger ships or cargo haulers. The magnets were also used to activate certain features, like the firing guns on the base playsets. To me the most awesome was the shadowbat, it could carry two little shadow parasites on the wings, and an invader in it's cargo belly!

 

Sadly, the series didn't really catch on, later releases were much simplified in design, and of poorer quality. Also, collecting this has it's own cons; very often the 'engines' (just wind up springs) didn't work out of the box. It would be cool with the technology nowadays, to have a revival of sorts for Starcom The rights are now with Mattel methinks!

 

Interestingly, Europe had another seperate wave of Starcom figures and vehicles, some which never reached our shores!

LEGO Ewok Village

Hmmm, so the newest large LEGO Star Wars set is the Ewok Village, prob cause it's the 30th Anniversary of ROTJ  methinks. Still, ROTJ isn't my favorite episode out of the trilogy. Although it looks pretty cool, i'm not much into Ewoks either..... or how easy they trounce stormtroopers! Also, at US$250, not cheap! Lots of minifigs though.

3D Printed Atlas

Man, i should really invest in a 3D printing machine (you up for this buddy?), i've got this idea to print replacement parts/upgrades/improvements for exisiting/vintage toys! I know shapeways does it, but it's still a very niche thing, so maybe there's a market there.

This one is very cool, didn't know it can print to fine now, from what i heard, the material is pretty tough (ABS or POM i think), but heckuva expensive.

Yamato VF-19S

The VF-19S is the 3rd revision of the VF-19 design that Yamato has released so far; the previous 2 versions always had an issue of the 'neck' of the jet mode being too thick. Amazing how far they've come since then. The proportions are mostly spot on, and most importantly, the transformation is intuitive and uncomplicated!

Thankfully, Yamato has been packing their toys in more compact boxes compared to the past (which was mostly 50% air), the paint job is excellent and the toy has a overall glossy look.

Gerwalk is sweet, and balances well. The hips, knees and ankle articulate well enough for posing, and is quite stable even though it seems front heavy!

Did i mention before how easy it was to transform? Amazing feat of engineering, how they actually manage to compact a lot of parts, and swing them away so they everything looks in place...lot of "Oh THAT's how they did it!" moments here!

 

Overall, a most enjoyable release from Yamato! Kinda makes it sad then that the company is no more. Hopefully the company who've bought over the rights carries on making these fine toys!